The Crackpot Caucus

The tutorial in 8th grade biology that Republicans got after one of their members of Congress went public with something from the wackosphere was instructive, and not just because it offered female anatomy lessons to those who get their science from the Bible.

Take a look around key committees of the House and you’ll find a governing body stocked with crackpots whose views on major issues are as removed from reality as Missouri’s Representative Todd Akin’s take on the sperm-killing powers of a woman who’s been raped.

On matters of basic science and peer-reviewed knowledge, from evolution to climate change to elementary fiscal math, many Republicans in power cling to a level of ignorance that would get their ears boxed even in a medieval classroom. Congress incubates and insulates these knuckle-draggers.

It’s one thing for the fundies to use their backward views to harm themselves, and quite another for them to drag down everyone else. When the fundie lobby gets troglodytes elected we all pay the price. There is simply no way America can move forward and solve its problems, that often require scientific knowledge and critical thinking, when we have people with medieval mindsets making key decisions for our nation’s future.

America has to make a choice. Either it can keep electing Tea Party types and social conservatives — who will lead America into moral, social, educational, and economic decline. Or, we can bring back adults to Washington and state houses who don’t rule through superstition and magical thinking.

Anyone who believes we can continue the destructive path we are on is kidding themselves. When dumb people are elected — you don’t get smart solutions.

About the Author

Wayne Besen is the Founding Executive Director of Truth Wins Out and author of “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth” (Haworth, 2003). In 2010, Besen was awarded the “Visionary Award” at the Out Music Awards for organizing the American Prayer Hour, an event which shined a spotlight on the role American evangelicals played in the introduction of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

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2 Comments

It’s the plain, unvarnished, ugly truth, and needs to be said over and over again!

America is already in decline; there is no question about that. The only question is whether it will choose politicians who will slow or stop its decline or accelerate it.

Peter HargmierAugust 24, 2012 at 12:11 pm -

Many of these individuals wear their ignorance with pride, demonstratively proclaiming that they are most definitely NOT one of the “educated liberal elite”.

It all can be traced back to the fundamentalist attitude toward knowledge. To be a good christian you have to blindly accept what the bible says and at no time employ anything resembling rational or reasoned thinking.

They have even literally demonized knowledge –
‘Lucifer’ translates as ‘Bringer of Light’ (or illumination – or knowledge!)

Perhaps instead of looking to the bible, we should instead look to Platonic discourse, specifically ‘The Republic’ and his assertion that there should be a ruling elite of ‘Philosopher Kings’-

“philosophers [must] become kings…or those now called kings [must]…genuinely and adequately philosophize” (The Republic, 5.473d).

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